Throughout history, recycling has been around in some way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC signs of early recycling are known to have occurred. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained less of what’s known today as household waste, including pots, tools and ash, which demonstrates that people were, even back then, keen to reuse products during a period when natural resources weren’t so freely available. Little did they know that what they were starting would play a huge role in shaping society for future generations
Indeed it could be argued how the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or transforming the recovered items into new things.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were common place as natural materials became considerably more difficult to come by. As well as food being rationed, certain materials like metal and fibre werenormally allowed just for use by the government in support of military operations, to fulfill manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry. There was a desperate need to support the military.
Because of rising energy costs, the requirement to recycle aluminium increased in the seventies.. As a material aluminium uses much less energy during the production process than some other materials. Plus it was much sought-after because of its non rusting properties. The need for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal dealers who were prepared to pay cash in exchange for the best quality metal. Also, in the seventies in regions of the United States of America, the first vans were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the gathering of recyclable materials being towed behind the vehicle.
Towards the late eighties, early 1990′s and as the awareness of handling the worldwide environmental state accelerated amongst world-wide authorities, the focus on recycling really started to get impetus. In the UK, the authorities imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of fresh legal guidelines upon the waste community, recycling initiatives really began to take off. The once widely recognised waste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management firms and demonstrated through the offer of waste collection and recyclable materials collection that waste needed to be managed more efficiently. Local skip companies needed to become better at what they did.
Nowadays, many hundreds of materials and resources are easily recycled, including paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phones, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete. The demand for different types of collection receptacles has increased dramatically.
What is Recycling?
The word recycling describes the operation of converting second-hand items into new or nearly new products avoiding the need for potentially useable materials or products to be thrown away. Essentially it is diverting waste from landfill.
Recycling plays an important role in a modern world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It helps to reduce the requirement to avoidably send waste materials and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. As a result this lessens the demand and the reliance upon the consumption of fresh or new natural resources, decreases energy usage and air and rain water pollution, that all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Significant contributions to improving the natural environment.
Recycling is probably mostnoticeable through the recycling services now provided by local councils for household refuse and recycling collections and by modern waste management companies who commonly provide a full range of waste and recycling collection solutions. Some firms, who have traditionally concentrated only on the collection of recyclable products, are now increasing their operations offering to collect general waste at the same time.
Practically all of your rubbish gathered today will head to some type of energy from waste treatment unit where any recyclables will be removed for reprocessing. The left over waste material may go to landfill or might be used for energy recovery.
The majority of all of your rubbish collected today will head to some kind of cardboard recycling handling centre where any recyclables may be extracted for reprocessing. Your left over waste materials may go to landfill or could be utilised for energy recovery.
In the waste materials market, the regular marketing activity surrounds the waste materials hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a basic message designed for a far reaching audience. Think about ways to eliminate waste. Could the waste material products or materials be reused? Could the waste product or material be recycled or retrieved?
The waste material hierarchy is a strategy that a lot of waste management firms and local authorities consider when establishing new waste management approaches. The plan is intended to focus the mind around precluding waste materials being produced at all. Think about the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle. The slogan has been adopted particularly well in the public sector.
So the focus is very much on the overall production process. The waste materials hierarchy expands much wider than to waste materials management companies and local bodies. Working groups have been set up to bring many sectors together to consider the complete waste cycle. By way of example, the producer of a product has to think about how a product will be designed. Could parts be used which could eventually be recycled or reused? Can the amount of packaging which often surrounds the product be cut down? When the product gets to the shop, is it required for the product to be located within an outer box? If the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the buyer do with the excess elements of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Can it return to a recycling plant, for onward shipment to a reprocessing plant, in which the cycle begins once again?
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that most waste needs to be processed to avoid the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste material heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has applied a landfill levy on all waste discarded within landfill. The rate of duty has increased considerably in recent years rising from the initial level of £8 per ton, to the current rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has previously announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton by the end of 2010/11. This fee applies to all general waste material streams, although there is a lower rate for inert materials. Dispatching waste materials straight to landfill is an expensive choice and locating suitable processes to divert waste out of landfill is now a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
Thus, the message to everyone is obvious, segregate your waste materials to scale back the volume of waste materials going to landfill. Traditionally, both at home and at the office, as soon as you place waste into the dustbin , it’s forgotten about. Another person will collect it and take it away. These days, at home and at your workplace, recycling is being stimulated via the provision of containers in which to place certain recyclable materials.
Perhaps the most common products to be seen being gathered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. However the possiblity to recycle a large amount of materials or products keeps growing.
Organisations like ours are fast supplying energy recovering facilities to keep up with the ongoing challenge of what to do with all the waste materials we, as a nation, create.
The means of collecting materials or waste materials to be recycled is also escalating and becoming more noticeable within local communities. Specialist collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are springing up in supermarket car parks to encourage clientele of the superstore to return such objects as bottles, newspapers or card to the containers on their way into the supermarket. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to return with their recyclables.
Local Authority waste material collection crews or their appointed personnel will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside typically at the front of your property. Collection from domestic premises usually remains the duty of the local authorities and several have employed the provision of baskets in which to gather particular recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the industrial and commercial field, waste material management businesses offer standalone storage containers where the customer deposits the applicable waste stream or recyclable material ready for collection. The bins will often be plainly branded as to which recyclable product need to be put within that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to identify which recyclable wastes need to be placed within which bins.
The true secret to a successful recycling initiative is homeowners about what can be recycled and how. In the commercial world getting the co-operation of office employees is crucial. The introduction of any recycling scheme must ensure that in asking staff to separate waste for recycling, it does not become time consuming and affect the effectiveness of what employees should be doing in their work. The introduction of any recycling scheme should be kept simple.
The Recycling Process
Several collection systems exist for the collection of the recyclable material . No matter which collection system is employed , the materials are taken to a drop off point where they will be segregated from other waste items. This may be done by hand or by employing mechanised separators.
To start the recycling process from a collection point of view, the more recyclable material that can be separated at source, i.e. at home or in the work place, the more useful it will be for the waste collector. For this reason individual containers are supplied to the waste producer to encourage segregation at source. If card can be collected using a truck, which will collect no other waste materials, the card will be kept uncontaminated and as a consequence could have an improved value when it reaches the processing plant. Similarly, specialist glass collection vehicles are used to collect just glass. Apart from the obvious health and safety factors and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a greater value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste. Uncontaminated recyclables will have a much higher value than contaminated products.
Once collected, the recyclable materials can be taken direct to a reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that particular type of material. So a separate glass collection vehicle could take the load on to a glass processing plant.
If mixed recyclables are collected like paper and card within the same container, it might be a necessity for the collector to take the load to a drop off point to unload and permit the load to be segregated into individual paper and card bundles for onward transfer to a paper or card processing plant. No matter which approach is used, the recyclable material gathered will most likely be sorted or washed before going through to a reprocessing plant to be processed to a new resource and ultimately used as a new product or in manufacturing.
There is a charity programme now in place where food waste from supermarkets which would expect to normally be thrown away, is gathered and redistributed to the struggling and needy members of the community.
The Increasing Importance of Recycling
In the UK close to 35% of waste collected from homes is recycled or composted. Whilst within the business and industrial area, the quantity of waste sent to landfill has dropped substantially recently and the volume of waste material now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this sector has risen above the amounts going to landfill.
Landfill continues to play a significant role in the management of waste throughout the UK as not all waste materials are able to be recycled and some are more suited to landfill disposal than by any other method. Nevertheless, it’s not just the increasing costs of disposing of waste directly in landfill that is making recycling an even more attractive option for businesses. Landfill is becoming scarce, with certain specialists hinting that the amount of void accessible across all UK landfill sites, has less than 10 years existence left before all sites are reckoned to be full. Such countries as Dubai have filled parts of the coastline with their waste and created useful land area to extend the boundaries of their kingdom.
In recent years, waste material management firms have had to vary their focal point, and begin to take into consideration and put money into technology, such as energy from waste plants, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities have also changed their attitudes by undertaking detailed strategic reviews as to how waste material under their jurisdiction must be handled. In some instances this means unitary authorities are implementing plans to bring in extended deals, usually around 25 years in length, through which to control their waste management demands. These deals will often include the need to create a facility through which to deal with all waste material produced across the county by segregating all waste materials streams. The agreements may also include the collection of waste and recyclables from households throughout the area. So the issue of waste management is beginning to change rapidly. The times of simply throwing everything in the dustbin have gone and the advent of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.
Summary
Recycling has become a way of life and is here to stay. It has evolved over the years from a thing that was performed without any real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just trying to make a living. Today, many blue chip companies are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste strategy, where the purpose is very clear – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must finish up in landfill.
Many houses across the country now have some kind of container in which to isolate waste for recycling. The requirement to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and commercial sectors, there is an increasing list of items to take into account for recycling such as printer cartridges, office paper, metal and electrical equipment.
Ideally the whole process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the time of the horse. However the advent of new technology will increase further the way in which our waste is to be managed in the future, but it is highly unlikely that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.
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